2007/05/22

Adult Swim, the nation's leading purveyors of Strattera - supressing animated comedy programs, has dipped a toe or two into the indie talent pool of late, what with the DangerDoom project, indie-heavy Aqua Teen Hunger Force flick soundtrack, and partnerships with the likes of Stones Throw and Chocolate Industries.Adult Swim is offering Warm & Scratchy, a downloadable album of new and/or exclusive and/or rare and, best of all, FREE tracks from some of indie's biggest artists. The Rapture, TV on the Radio, Les Fav Fav, Liars, Broken Social Scene, Jesu, Fennesz, and the Good, the Bad, and the Queen all contribute.Could this generosity be a ploy to stir up promotion for a new show teeming with geometrically-shaped characters, odd voices, and non sequiturs? If so, note to Adult Swim: the "____ & Scratchy" name is, in a meta sort of way, already taken.

2007/05/15

In 2003, J Dilla was better known as Jay Dee, a Detroit producer who shunned publicity but was widely respected in hip-hop; Madlib was an up-and-coming L.A. producer making a name for himself with his wild diversity, from rap (Quasimoto) to electronic jazz (Yesterdays New Quintet) to remixes (Shades of Blue (Blue Note, 2003)).At the time of Champion Sound's original release in late 2003, J Dilla and Madlib had never been photographed together or appeared as a group in public. In the years that followed, this changed drastically – after Dilla's move to Los Angeles, the two worked together, communicated through hip-hop beat tapes, and toured together as Jaylib. Madlib's profile rose with his MF DOOM-collab Madvillain (soundscan 93k). J Dilla, though dealing with a serious illness, continued crafting material for artists such as Common and Busta Rhymes while working on a wealth of solo material. Dilla's final albums – Donuts (Stones Throw, 2006), The Shining (BBE, 2006) – along with the re-issue of Ruff Draft (Stones Throw, 2007) have introduced his name and music to countless new fans while publications from The Source to Rolling Stone paid respect to his musical genius.Many felt that Champion Sound wasn't given the attention it deserved when it was originally released. In preparing the album for reissue with b-sides, instrumentals, and later photos of the group, Madlib quietly presented the label with a collection of new Jaylib remixes. These 9 remixes, together with b-sides and the instrumentals - 43 tracks in all - are collected in this deluxe 2-CD set, selling for the same price as the original Champion Sound CD, delayed in the pressing, slated for June 12, 2007, are collected here together for the first time in this deluxe 2-CD set.

Little Brother the duo (rappers only), a refashioned version of LittleBrother the trio (rappers + 9th Wonder = rapper’s delight) is not “evolution” as Phonte Coleman asserted. I suggest that the duo is delving into a hurried lollipop (radio-ready) banality. I salute to their group death that their trio catalog is invaluable and their dissolution has not been idle.

Honestly man, I wasn’t even gonna enter this Duel. But on the day of the contest, Financial Aid fronted on my refund check and it pissed me off. So I entered at the last minute out of anger, you know. I guess it helped (laughs).

During the rap battle with MC Keyshawn the topic switches to: "If I Was a Penis" and

Phonte delivers:"You don’t understand my onomatopoeia/ If I was a dick/ I’d squirt in your face/ and give you gonorrhea."…Phonte got his money.

Malik, Joe, Ahmad, Monk & Otis have called it quits. The last YNQ record, Otis Jackson's solo joint "Jewelz EP" will drop on vinyl in June.In July, the Yesterdays Universe album will feature the next phase in the YNQ universe: 10 new groups produced by Madlib, all of whom will have records released in the next 12 months.Check out "Free Son" from the Yesterdays Universe album at Stones Throw's page on Uber.

*Cam'ron songs and 50 Cent's rumored cover: "Courtesy Curtis" to Get Right Music

I first discovered Milton Nascimento at Central Library, 1015 N. Quincy St., ArlingtonVa.22201 back in the mid-90’s. I was working part-time as a teacher’s-assistant at the YMCAChildCareDevelopmentCenter, a preschool, and Central Library was within walking distance.I prosaically borrowed albums, CD formatted, by unbeknownst artist and serendipitously checked-out one of Milton’s albums. My first listen through my last, spanning at least 12 years, have always been with delectation.

Milton Nascimento was born in Rio. Nascimento’s White adoptive parents brought him to Tres Pontas, a small town in the state of Minas Gerais, when he was two. His mother sang in a choir and at local music festivals, often accompanied by Milton. Nascimento's father was an electronics tinkerer, math teacher, and tersely ran a local radio station where a young Milton sporadically worked as a DJ. He later began singing as a teenager. When he was 19, Nascimento moved to the capital Belo Horizonte and began singing wherever and whenever the occasion afforded. MN finally caught a break when the pop singer Elis Regina recorded one of his songs, "Canção do Sal," in 1966. Regina got him a showcase on a popular Brazilian TV program, and after performing at Brazil's International Song Festival the following year, his career was launched.Courage is Milton Nascimento's first album for North American ears, recorded at Van Gelder Studios in New Jersey under the watchful eye and discerning ear of Creed Taylor, is a masterpiece, a gorgeously executed tour through his early songs. Backed beautifully by Eumir Deodato's lush orchestrations and a clutch of sidemen from the Taylor stable (including Herbie Hancock, Airto Moreira, and Hubert Laws).Courage finds Nascimento at a time before tropicalismo, when he latched onto the tail end of the bossa nova movement and quickly became one of its most inspired performers and songwriters.

…it's clear that Obama also is running for an equally important unelected office, in the province of the popular imagination — the "Magic Negro."

The Magic Negro is a figure of postmodern folk culture, coined by snarky 20th century sociologists, to explain a cultural figure who emerged in the wake of Brown vs. Board of Education. "He has no past, he simply appears one day to help the white protagonist," reads the description on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magical_Negro.

He's there to assuage white "guilt" (i.e., the minimal discomfort they feel) over the role of slavery and racial segregation in American history, while replacing stereotypes of a dangerous, highly sexualized black man with a benign figure for whom interracial sexual congress holds no interest.

As might be expected, this figure is chiefly cinematic — embodied by such noted performers as Sidney Poitier, Morgan Freeman, Scatman Crothers, Michael Clarke Duncan, Will Smith and, most recently, Don Cheadle. And that's not to mention a certain basketball player whose very nickname is "Magic."

Like a comic-book superhero, Obama is there to help, out of the sheer goodness of a heart we need not know or understand. For as with all Magic Negroes, the less real he seems, the more desirable he becomes. If he were real, white America couldn't project all its fantasies of curative black benevolence on him.

Water is often brackish and undrinkable at points where freshwater rivers flow into the sea.

Did you know?

When the word "brackish" first appeared in English in the 1500s, it simply meant "salty," as did its Dutch ancestor "brak." Then, as now, brackish water could simply be a mixture of saltwater and freshwater. Since that time, however, "brackish" has developed the additional meanings of "unpalatable" or "distasteful" - presumably because of the undrinkable quality of saltwater. "The brackish water that we drink / Creeps with a loathsome slime, / And the bitter bread they weigh in scales / Is full of chalk and lime." As this use from Oscar Wilde's "Ballad of Reading Gaol" illustrates, brackish water can also include things other than salt that make it unpleasant to drink.

Dis-klā-mər

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The group name Alphabet Soup is explained as follows:
The communicative rudiments of language starts with the alphabet. The alphabet is a set of letters and/or other characters written or otherwise (oral-tradition, etc.) arranged in a customary order to convey knowledge or inform. The "Soup" was our music. Together the compliment of both words (alphabet) and music rendered the EP: Sunny Day In Harlem.

Physically, Holden is gangly and tall. He is also described as having several gray hairs on the right side of his head. These two qualities contribute to Caulfield's appearing to be older than his age, yet his mannerisms and behavior contradict that impression. One of Caulfield's most striking and quintessential qualities is his powerful revulsion for "phony" human qualities. Qualities such as narcissism, hypocrisy, and superficiality embody Holden's concept of phoniness; and, unfortunately, Holden is adept at realizing these qualities in other people. This serves to bolster Holden's cynicism and consequently contributes to his mistrust of other people. Interestingly, despite Holden's strong disdain for phony qualities, he exhibits some of the qualities that he abhors, thereby making him a somewhat tragic character.

Caulfield is the second of four children, with two brothers, D.B. and Allie, and one sister, Phoebe. (There is also a second sister, Viola, who is briefly mentioned in the short story "I'm Crazy," but is never referred to again.) Allie is deceased at the time of The Catcher in the Rye. Their parents are left unnamed in Salinger's works.

Born into a life of wealth and privilege, Caulfield looks down upon the elite world he occupies. He questions the values of his class and society and sometimes appears to oppose conventions merely for the sake of opposition. He is widely considered to be the template for the "angry young man" archetype.